Reeling 'em in

Yuthana Boon-orm may be best known as a DJ and for heading Fat Radio, but few people know that his first passion is for films.

The managing director of Sanam Luang Music Company was raised in the movie business - his uncle ran a movie theatre in the countryside and his dad, who worked at Osotspa, promoted products during the intermissions of Nang Khaay Yaa - free outdoor screenings in rural areas.

"I followed my father everywhere and during the long holidays, I spent all my time at my uncle's theatre, watching films everyday," he says.

From moviegoer, he turned movie collector, buying up video, laser discs and more recently DVDs and Blue Rays, starting from the days when he was a student at Chulalongkorn University's Communication Arts faculty.

Now, he has more than 2,000 movies on his shelves, covering everything from TV series to Oscar winning films.

"It's like collecting stamps, we are happiest when we find a limited collection," he says.

"The joy of collecting for me, at least, comes from watching how much the filmmakers and actors have developed over the years."

And though prices can be high, he has never stopped buying, even though he admits that he still has to watch a lot of the movies in his collection. Sometimes he worries he will die before he sees them all.

"The problem is that when I'm free to watch, I waste about two hours decided what to see and then end up replaying my favourites like 'The Godfather' and 'Fight Club'," he grins.

He keeps details of the films he owns in the DVD Profiler programme so he can check online via his mobile phone before buying.

"I can't remember all the stories, so I often buy the same movie title that I already own. The program is useful that way," he says.

He has cut down on his purchases when times have been hard and when his family has needed to save some money. "But I'm always back in the DVD shops again as soon as the situation returns to normal," he grins.

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Spotlights on the set

>> While Yuthana doesn't believe in pirated copies, he says he gets upset when film on a legal video or DVD turns out to be of poor quality.

>> He waited for three years to buy the complete mystery series box set "The Twilight Zone" from Amazon.com, paying Bt4,000 as opposed to the original release price of Bt20,000.